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Red, white and blue I can feel proud of

If anyone has been missing their daily dose of royal action over the past 24 hours, fear not.

The Red Arrows

For many of us, four days of constant flag waving and Queen watching just aren’t enough.

And if you have missed out on any pomp and circumstance over the past few hours, don’t forget the Trooping The Colour is due up in a few days...

For me, it has all been far too much.

I tried to avoid as much of the Diamond Jubilee extravaganza as possible. And I was annoyed at how anyone who didn’t buy endless amounts of Jubilee tat, or take part in a street party or watch endless hours of boring TV was somehow committing an act of treason.

Since when have you had to be a royalist to be patriotic?

I was surprised at how heartened and uplifted I was to see so much bunting and so many Union flags hanging off houses, fences and gates and planted in gardens.

It would be great to see so much pride and decoration for St George’s day next year.

I have to say that top prize for the best display of red, white and blue has to go to the good folk of Lonsdale Terrace, on the hill into Whitehaven.

I noticed it on my way to the town’s Festival.

I had a marvellous weekend away from all the Jubilee-tastic happenings (especially all the televised stuff) enjoying festivals great and small at Whitehaven and Ireby.

For once, the rain stayed away from both events, though Whitehaven was affected by the poor weather that hit those down south over the weekend.

Some of Sunday’s air display fly-overs had to be cancelled as downpours in the south kept planes grounded.

But the Red Arrows did make it and provided the highlight of the day for me and thousands of others.

Their astonishing close-formation display had the huge crowd spontaneously ooh-ing and clapping – even though there was no chance of the air-devil pilots hearing the applause.

Sad to say, the day was marred by a lack of buses for the park and ride scheme when the festival came to a close.

We and scores of others, including youngsters and toddlers, waited an hour to be ferried back to our cars.

Then two arrived at once!

Some people had even resorted to catching a taxi.

Why Reays couldn’t have arranged for more buses to be available when the display ended at 5pm I don’t know.